St. John's biggest red flag could somehow be an advantage in March after making history

St. John's has impressively won 13 of its last 14 games since the calendar flipped to 2025, and AP voters have ostensibly taken notice. The Johnnies were unranked when this surge began, and they've now skyrocketed to No. 7 in the latest AP Top 25 poll.

Per St. John's official X (formerly known as Twitter) account, this marks their highest AP ranking since Dec. 2, 1991! It's an incredible, historic achievement for them, reaching heights they haven't in over two decades.

But what if we told you the Red Storm has left meat on the bone and can find another gear come March? Should the Johnnies continue making strides on their dreadful three-point shooting, they will cement themselves as legitimate national championship contenders.

St. John's 3-point woes somehow be an advantage in March after making AP history

Through 28 contests, St. John's has made 6.2 nightly threes at a ghastly 30.2 percent clip. Those numbers rank 330th and 344th — out of 364 Division I schools — respectively. Despite this, the Red Storm has gone 24-4, thanks to their fourth-ranked defense. However, any positive regression from beyond the arc could turn them into a well-oiled machine on both ends of the floor.

So far, St. John's has overcome its long-distance shortcomings, though doing so will be much more challenging in a win-or-go-home environment. The glaring weakness puts them on upset alert at the Big Dance, especially against any high-octane offensive opponent. But the sky is the limit if they improve in that department, as they've done in their latest victories over UConn and DePaul.

The Red Storm made eight and nine threes apiece against UConn and DePaul, eclipsing a 42 percent conversion rate in each matchup. St. John's has shown they can do it, albeit over a minuscule sample size. Expecting them to maintain this blistering pace is undeniably unsustainable. Yet, somewhere between their season-long tally and the recent surge is both plausible and a tremendously impactful goal.

Conversely, if anyone can prevail regardless of their program's success (or lack thereof) from downtown, it's legendary head coach Rick Pitino. Since 2012, only two teams have reached the Final Four while shooting 33.1 percent or worse from three: Louisville did it in back-to-back seasons. And notably, the St. John's sideline chief was the common denominator.